Batista Sacrifices Big Show & Bears In The Business: Ten Things You May Have Missed In Wrestling This Week

Are you all excited for WrestleMania Backlash (or 'Backlash' as most of us call it)?

Yeah, me neither.

I'm sure there will be some good matches and all - Roman Reigns versus Cesaro should at least be a banger - but it's still hard to get hyped for these big shows without actual fans, especially when much of the televised product leading up to it has been poor.

Backlash used to be a highlight of the WWE pay-per-view calendar back in the day, being host to some genuinely classic matches and incredible moments.

Immediately springing to mind are The Rock and Steve Austin tearing it up in '99, Rock beating Triple H to win the WWE Title with the help of Stone Cold in 2000, Randy Orton having his breakout performance opposite Mick Foley in '04 and, who could forget, Vince McMahon going over on 'God' in 2006.

Will anything on Sunday's show come close to reaching those heights?

You'd think probably not. But here's hoping.

10. The World's Largest Sacrifice

WWE.com

Dave Bautista is currently doing the media rounds to promote his film Army of the Dead, which will play in select cinemas from today, before being made available on Netflix next week.

Speaking with comingsoon.net, The Animal was asked about which five wrestlers he would bring with him for a 'zombie heist'.

Big Dave chose the following, giving his reasons for each:

"All right. So five right off the top of my head, I’m bringing Titus. He’s my number one guy. He’s my right-hand man. I’m bringing MVP. He’s my dude. He’s my soldier like that dude is, you know, he’s definitely coming with me ’cause he’s got everything that you need. I’m bringing Rey Mysterio because I believe Rey can do things that a lot of human beings are unable to do.

I’m bringing Undertaker. ‘Cause Undertaker’s just a badass. I know we can depend on that dude. I’m also going to bring Big Show because if we need to sacrifice someone for zombies because obviously, you know, Big Show’s the guy. They will spend like days eating that guy. So we don’t have to worry about [it]. We know we got days to move around without zombies chasing us ’cause they’re going to be busy eating Big Show".

I'm sure Paul Wight heard about that and cried. And then went for lunch and cried. And then went for a walk and cried. And then cried himself to sleep before waking up in the middle of the night, crying.

(Big Show likes to cry a lot).

9. Perception Is...

Impact Wrestling

...and that is what I want.

AEW World, AAA Mega and Impact Wrestling World Champion had some fun responding to a fan who posted a picture of the belt collecter wearing all three of his prized possessions on a recent episode of Impact Wrestling.

The fan captioned it '"I can't believe Kenny Omega is not wearing his Impact titles, Perception is Reali-"', a nod to some (like Bully Ray) who felt like Omega was disrespecting the Impact strap by having Michael Nakazawa carry it on last week's Dynamite.

The Cleaner had a response that cut right to the point, tweeting back 'Perception is go f*** yourself'.

Fair play.

8. The Intellectual Saviour's Viewpoint

WWE.com

While AEW's Blood and Guts match was a ratings smash and (polarising Jericho bump aside) a hit with critics, some in WWE management reportedly felt as though the gimmick bout was a step backwards, with one being quoted as saying it 'set the business back thirty years'.

Aaron Stevens, formerly WWE's Damien Sandow and now competing for the NWA, tweeted out his thoughts on the matter:

'I heard someone said the @AEW Blood and Guts match set the business back 30 years. #1. it was awesome.  #2. Considering what some companies are putting out there, 30 years back would be a vast improvement'.

Hmmm, I wonder which companies he is talking about?

7. Teddy Long Is The Cardio King

WWE.com

Charles 'Godfather' Wright sat down for an interesting and wide-ranging interview with the WSI - Wrestling Shoot Interview YouTube channel this week.

He touched upon a number of different topics, from his days in Memphis and Germany, to his dislike of Hulk Hogan and the creation of the Godfather character.

The Hall of Famer dropped a surprising bit of information when doing a bit of word association and talked about how he did morning cardio with Sable, Debra McMichael and Teddy Long.

The host, surprised at the mere thought of the former SmackDown General Manager doing morning cardio, questioned it, prompting the Godfather to respond that:

"Teddy Long is the cardio champion of the world. Nobody could do more cardio than Teddy Long. He'd go two hours on a treadmill, running. And he's like 70-something years old. We'd smoke in the morning and then we'd go and do cardio. We'd always do cardio, and to this day I can do an hour of cardio - I could go over there and do an hour of cardio right now, because I did so much with Teddy and, once you learn how to breathe, cardio is easy". 

Papa Shango also disclosed that Paul Bearer used to roll the perfect joints and, perhaps not long after lighting up a fatty himself, got Brakkus mixed up with Ludvig Borga and seemed confused that Mabel and Big Daddy V were the same person.

Great stuff. Check it out.

6. Ice Train Brings The Fire

WWE.com

Former WCW wrestler Harold 'Ice Train' Hogue recently discussed his career with the Shining Wizard Podcast, talking about his Fire & Ice team with Scott Norton, his best forgotten MI Smooth character and beating up JBL in Germany.

Recognising that the team with Norton had potential and that it broke up too soon, Hogue took his share of the blame for their downfall:

"I was a little bit different back then. I believe that I treated Scott Norton bad because, I didn’t respect his knowledge that he had, and at that time I didn’t want to be a tag team partner. I just thought I was ready to be on my own. But not understanding that concept of the business, me and Norton never even had an hour of conversation. We were totally different characters. Now, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve said to many people ‘I apologise'. 

I could have really helped Fire & Ice. We could have stayed together longer. I don’t think me and Norton understood how special we were, because I believe we had a lot of people giving different views in our ear. When I look at it now, I’m like ‘man we were giving the Steiners big butt whoopings, and there’s no way that team should have broke up so early’. But at that time, I don’t think Norton wanted to tag with me, and I probably didn’t want to tag with him. 

I don’t think he knew me as a person and I don’t think I knew him as a person. I believe tag teams got to have an equal yoke and it has to be a real tag team. When you grow together, it’s different than when you’re put together".

His comments on his time working for Otto Wanz for CWA in Germany during the mid-90's were interesting, particularly his scraps with JBL, intimating that the WWE Hall of Famer's hardman rep was not in place at that time:

"The night I won The Bremen Cup, it was me and JBL for the finals. And I beat the hell out of JBL. JBL was over there. And when I tell you he was screaming like a baby, you can call him tomorrow. Over in Europe, I could be myself. It was basically, other than Finlay & Rambo, I was it. So I could do what I wanted to do. If I wanted to get out there and work stiff and solid, I could do it.

It was two Americans for the cup. And I was the only black babyface to ever win that Bremen Cup. And it was one of the most proud and John, bless his heart, he took that beating, because, man I beat the breaks off of JBL. I’ll tell you, it was rough for him that night. So when I look at JBL on TV, when it was him and Ron Simmons in WWE, I was like ‘what? JBL got the whole locker room terrified? Not in Germany’. I watched Finlay wrestle JBL over in Hanover and it looked like a baby against a grown person. It was that good". 

So that's Finlay, Ice Train and Joey Styles who have roughed up the Acolyte, then.

5. Strange Even For Florida

All Elite Wrestling

Darby Allin (who lost the TNT Title to Miro on this week's Dynamite) was promoting the bout and AEW on ESPN's Sportsnation.

As part of the appearance, he spoke about his cinematic match teaming with Sting against Team Taz at the Revolution pay-per-view.

According to Darby, he and the Stinger got pulled over three times by Florida police while filming the entrance, which saw Darby skateboard to the building where the bout took place.

"My entrance that I was filming for [AEW Revolution] with Sting, we were filming the entrance and we got pulled over three times by the cops. They just saw me skating down the street at three in the morning and I was in my face paint, speeding in a truck, and they were like, 'what's going on here?'. 'It's for wrestling, AEW''.

Two blokes in face paint, making their way to an old warehouse in the middle of the night, is seemingly too strange even for the Sunshine State.

4. Are Those Working Bears?

WWE Network

On this week's Grilling JR podcast, the voice of wrestling discussed the first WCW Superbrawl pay-per-view, which went down in 1991.

It was a historic show, featuring Bobby Eaton beating Arn Anderson for the WCW Television Title and being capped off by Ric Flair beating Tatsumi Fujinami to retain the WCW Title.

The most infamous moment of the show, however, came not during a match but one of the wrestler's entrances, as Big Josh walked to the ring or his match against Black Bart accompanied by two bears.

Ross had this to say on the stunt:

"I couldn’t tell you man, that was just another [idea]. You can tell how many new things the company was trying at that point in time to simply find something that would stick against the wall. The thing about how impractical [it was], what if the bear thing had gotten over? How are you gonna get them to the towns? You know, are you gonna call the local bear union and say ‘send me over two bears that are comfortable around people and can walk on their hind legs for about 50 yards'.

It was impractical obviously and that was a Dusty [Rhodes] deal, he wanted to get Big Josh over and Big Josh, of course, was Matt Borne, one of the Doinks. Probably the best Doink. I thought Matt was a hell of a worker frankly. He had some substance issues that never let him get a full run at something it seems like". 

I mean, you'd probably have to be on something to agree to walk to the ring with two actual, real life bears, wouldn't you?

3. The Greatest Debut

WWE.com

Recent WWE Hall of Fame inductee The Great Khali (imagining saying that fifteen years ago) was recently interviewed by Rewind Recap Live and talked about his WWE debut.

For his debut, the Punjabi giant attacked and laid out The Undertaker, leading to a series of matches between the pair where Khali was booked to look as dominant as possible.

Reminiscing, Khali said that Vince McMahon had some pretty simple instructions for him before he went out before cameras for the first time:

“Vince said, ‘I want to debut you’ but he didn’t say who is my opponent. He gives me a call and says, ‘come to TV after WrestleMania'. Same day, Michael Hayes said, ‘You have a big day. You need to go out during Mark Henry and fighting and you need to ‘Kill the The Undertaker’. I was so happy. He tried to explain and Vince said, ‘Yes! Kill him hard! Not easy'.

That moment was really great. All the world knew who was Great Khali. I want to thank Vince McMahon and WWE for making Great Khali. I appreciate Vince McMahon and WWE". 

Telling the Great Khali to go out and 'kill' someone sounds like a great idea. I'm surprise The Deadman didn't actually become, well, a dead man.

2. What A Maneuver!

WWE.com

CM Punk, the cheeky scoundrel, posted a humorous response to Charlotte Flair's picture of her sitting at the announce desk and wearing a headset from Raw.

The Queen accompanied the image by asking Twitter users to 'caption this', and the Straight-Edge Superstar duly obliged by writing back '“GODDAMNIT PAL WATCH THE MONITORS AND STOP SAYING WRESTLING PAL”'.

This was obviously a shot at Vince McMahon, who micromanages his announcers remotely from the Gorilla Position, something that ex-commentators have long complained about and actually led to Mick Foley leaving the position in 2009.

Punk knows what he's talking about, too, having sat in that chair for a period when he was injured in the autumn of 2010. He previously talked about being yelled at when providing commentary when he appeared on the Oral Sessions podcast with Renee Paquette.

1. The Hitman Is Back On The Silver Screen

WWE.com

Before deciding to pursue a career in the squared circle, a young Bret Hart wanted to be a film director.

As of yet, he hasn't stepped behind the camera himself but has plenty of experience in front of it, showing up in various TV shows, the most notable of which is probably his part in 1996's Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years (which necessitated him leaving WWE for months to do).

The Excellence of Execution will be back on our screens soon with a starring role in the forthcoming horror movie Tales from the Dead Zone.

A trailer for it (which co-stars 80's icon Corey Feldman) was recently released and, well, Bret steals the show.

You can watch the (NSFW) trailer here.

A quite obviously low-budget slice of tongue-in-cheek B movie schlock, the plot reads as follows:

Tales From the Dead Zone follows a medical examiner conducting autopsies on victims of a horrible car crash, imagining how they may have lived their lives. The result is an anthology, linking four terrifying stories together.

Hart plays the role of Private Investigator Tom Jenkings and looks to be having a whale of a time in the trailer, delivering lines such as 'I know when someone is f*cking lying to me' with the same passion he must have had when he said it to Vince McMahon on November 9, 1997.

Talk about method acting...